Hanoi news

France helps Hanoi with air quality assessment

Hanoi will roll out action programmes and plans to improve air quality in the city (Source: VNA)

Hanoi will roll out action programmes and
plans to improve air quality in the city based on the outcomes of a
French-funded air quality assessment project, said a municipal leader.

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung made the statement at
a reception for French Ambassador to Vietnam Bertrand Lortholary, Director of
Airparif Frederic Bouvier, and Director of the French Development
Agency (AFD) in Vietnam Fabrice Richy in Hanoi on October 17.

During the meeting, the two sides reviewed the one-year-old project,
under which air monitoring stations were set up in Hanoi.

Chung
called on Airparif, an agency in charge of monitoring air quality in Ile-de-France, to improve the quality
of the monitoring stations, while publicising air quality assessments.

In September, Green
Innovation and Development Centre (GreenID), a Hanoi-based NGO, released
a report on air quality in Vietnam in the first half of this year.
It compared air quality in 2017’s first six
months and in the same period of 2016.

Based on the report, from January to June, Hanoi
suffered 139 days of excessive PM2.5 level, according to international
standards.

PM, or particulate matter, is a mixture of solid
particles and liquid droplets in the air. PM2.5 particulates are about a
thirtieth as thick as the width of a human hair and can pass through lung
tissue and into the blood, harming human health.

The data showed no relation between the
concentration of pollutants and peak traffic hours, meaning air quality has
been affected by different pollution sources, notably the energy industry.

Nguyen Thi Anh Thu, GreenID’s environment
expert, said that though the air quality has improved, millions of Hanoians rarely
enjoyed fresh air.

The
Hanoi People’s Committee in January launched an online service with information
about weather conditions and environment indexes, including air quality index,
rainfall and flooding.-VNA